As the weather heats up, employees of many organizations pack up their laptops and head out to pursue summer travels with families or friends. As employees prepare to spend time out of the office this summer, many won’t fully disconnect and will regularly check emails or access files and documents while on the road. Though working and connecting on the beach may seem like an innocent (if not conscientious) gesture, without the proper guidelines set in place it can compromise both network performance and security, despite the best intentions.
During this summertime lull in the office, IT teams need to gear up to avoid network problems. Here are a few guidelines to help maintain a secure network:
- Keep staff informed: Make sure everyone in the organization has a clear understanding of the company’s remote access policies.
- Connect mobile devices: If you allow employees to work off of mobile devices like iPads, smartphones or netbooks, ensure that you have policies in place about what devices are supported and how you plan to manage them as they touch the corporate infrastructure.
- Keep it professional: All network activity, regardless of where it comes from and the device it originates on is subject to the same restrictive company policies enforced in the office, so make sure employees keep activity to business-only matters.
- Be secure: Ensure employees don’t steal or “borrow” Internet from a neighboring connection. If an individual is traveling to a hotel or resort location, there are likely services to purchase the internet on an hourly or daily basis. Conversely, if the employee is on a computer at home, the Internet connection must be password protected to prohibit hackers from entering and consequently possibly having access to the company’s network.
If you’re in IT, have the talk with your entire organization and make sure they understand how serious a disruption can be to an entire enterprise. Ensure employees understand that working remotely is a right nowadays, but one that has to be managed carefully by everyone in the organization. For a deeper understanding of the value of network security and IT, plus additional steps you can take to remain secure, check out this recent Wall Street Journal article which offers a CEO perspective on a hacker attack.
If you’re a network manager, do you have any other summertime tips to keep your network safe?
